1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an editing apparatus and an editing method, and more particularly to an editing apparatus and an editing method suitable for use in an editing system employing an information processing apparatus having memory means of a relatively small capacity, such as a personal computer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Editing apparatuses conventionally used in broadcasting stations and elsewhere record in a large capacity hard disk unit video signals to be edited, and then edit these recorded signals.
Thus, an editing apparatus for application to such equipment has a large-capacity hard disk unit, into which original video materials recorded on a plurality of magnetic tapes are recorded (copied). This editing apparatus is configured to prepare an editing list on the basis of the video materials recorded on this hard disk unit, edit according to this editing list the video materials recorded on the hard disk unit, and record the result of edition in a video tape recorder or the like.
Incidentally, in recent years, it has come to be desired to use an information processing apparatus, such as a personal computer, to easily accomplish this kind of editing tasks. In this case, it is conceivable to re-record the original video materials into the personal computer for editing as in the case of a conventional editing apparatus.
However, this would entail the need for a hard disk unit of an extremely large capacity on the part of the personal computer, which would prevent an editing system of this kind to be easily structured.
One proposed solution to this problem is a method whereby a version of video materials is prepared for use in the compilation of the editing list on the part of the personal computer by reducing the resolution of the original video materials. Thus, the operator would compile an editing list on the personal computer from the video materials whose data quantity has been reduced in this manner, and edit the original video materials according to the editing list thereby compiled. However, though this would make it possible to reduce the quantity of data to be recorded on the part of the personal computer, there still remains the problem that eventually a hard disk unit having a large enough capacity to store all the video materials would be required.